Thursday, February 14, 2008

All's Well That Ends Well

Yesterday I had a small scare, with the potential of becoming a much bigger scare. When I was gathering up my things to go to work yesterday morning, I couldn’t find my purse. At first, when I was looking in the living room, the bedroom, anywhere I could think of that I might have put it down, I didn’t panic much. Maybe I’d left it in the car, either in the trunk with my gym bag or in the backseat.

It wasn’t there. I started to mentally retrace my steps and came to the conclusion I’d left it at the gym the day before. I knew I’d had it on my way to the kids club to pick up our daughter, but couldn’t account for it after that. So I called. No one had turned it in, no one had seen it.

I still wasn’t entirely panicked, as the kids club workers hadn’t arrived yet. Surely one of them had seen my purse and put it somewhere safe. The desk worker assured me they’d call if it turned up. By lunchtime, no call. After work I tried again and spoke with one of the ladies in the kids club. Still no luck.

So last night, after a trip to the grocery store and dinner, I knew I needed to go over and either look for myself, or decide someone had absconded with it and take the necessary precautions of changing account numbers and ordering new cards, license, etc.

Luckily, it was found in the kids club, hanging on a hook where the workers usually hang their own bags. Apparently one of the ladies had seen it and put it there for safekeeping, thinking I’d be back to the gym last night to work out, but she wasn’t there when I’d called in earlier in the day. Nothing was missing and everything is accounted for, so I breathed a big sigh of relief.

This could have turned into a huge stolen identity disaster, but it didn’t. It did remind me that I carry way too much personal information in my purse that I shouldn’t be carrying on a daily basis. It also reminded me I need to check my credit report on a regular basis to make sure someone hasn’t gotten my personal information in another way and is out there partying it up on my dime. I’ve been meaning to do that anyway, but this is just the kick in the pants to go ahead and get it done.

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